A Political–Historical Play
Characters
Mungai – Self-styled guardian of Lari memory; charismatic, sentimental, divisive
Gichuka Waithera – Visionary reformer; calm, firm, forward-looking
The People of Lari (Chorus) – Bound by history, torn by fear and hope
Elder Nyambura – Keeper of oral memory
Youth of Lari – Educated, restless, conflicted
The Past – A silent presence, sometimes speaking through echoes
ACT I – The Name That Bleeds
The stage is bare except for a large stone at the center. Written on it faintly: 1952. Drums beat slowly.
Chorus (soft, reverent): Lari remembers. Lari bleeds memory. Mûito wa Lari. Blood that never dried.
(Mungai enters, barefoot, carrying soil in his hands.)
Mungai: My people… Do you see this soil? It knows your names. It knows your grandfathers. It drank their blood when the world was silent. (He kneels, pours soil onto the stone.) They want you to forget. They want Lari to dissolve into Kenya. But I say no. Lari must remain Lari.
Chorus (rising): He speaks truth. He speaks pain. He speaks us.
Mungai (standing tall): I am Gítungati kía Lari. I stand between you and a world that does not understand your wounds.
(The drums stop. Silence.)
ACT II – The Altar
The stone is now surrounded by candles. People kneel. Mungai stands above them.
Mungai: Do not trust voices from outside. They do not carry your blood. They did not bury your dead.
Elder Nyambura: Memory is sacred.
Mungai: Yes. And sacred things must be protected. Even from progress.
Youth 1 (hesitant): But the world is changing…
Mungai (sharply): The world betrayed us once. It will do so again.
Chorus (conflicted): Fear sounds like wisdom. Pain sounds like truth.
(From the edge of the stage, Gichuka Waithera watches silently.)
ACT III – The Other Voice
Daylight. Candles are gone. The stone remains.
Gichuka Waithera (stepping forward): People of Lari, History is not a prison. It is a teacher.
Murmurs ripple through the Chorus.
Gichuka: The world is not waiting for us to heal forever. It is moving—to knowledge, to networks, to skill, to artificial intelligence.
Youth 2 (hopeful): AI? Innovation?
Mungai (laughing softly): Machines will not bring back the dead.
Gichuka: Neither will endless mourning. We honor the dead by building a future they were denied.
Chorus (divided): Is this betrayal… or liberation?
ACT IV – The Politics of Victimhood
Election drums. Posters of Mungai everywhere.
Mungai: They are the reason you are poor. They are the reason Lari suffers. They betrayed us.
Crowd (chanting): We are victims! We are victims!
(Gichuka steps forward.)
Gichuka: Who elected this suffering? Who chose leaders who trade wounds for power? (Silence.) Lari’s problems are not imported. They are locally manufactured. We vote them in. Then we kneel before them.
Youth 3 (quietly): We built our own chains.
(The Past whispers through the stage.)
The Past (echoing): Remember me—but do not live inside me.
ACT V – The Choice
The stone cracks slightly. Light seeps through.
Chorus: Can Lari remember Mau Mau and still move? Can wounds heal without being worshipped?
Mungai (desperate): If you leave me, you leave your ancestors!
Gichuka: No. We carry them forward.
(The Youth step toward Gichuka. Some elders hesitate, then follow.)
Chorus (slow, awakening): History behind us. Vision before us.
(Mungai stands alone beside the stone.)
Epilogue – Beyond the Stone
Chorus (final): Beware of leaders who turn memory into a throne, who rule by keeping people facing backward. For a community that kneels forever at yesterday will never stand in tomorrow.
Lights fade. The stone remains—but no longer at the center.
Curtain.
Characters
Mungai – Self-styled guardian of Lari memory; charismatic, sentimental, divisive
Gichuka Waithera – Visionary reformer; calm, firm, forward-looking
The People of Lari (Chorus) – Bound by history, torn by fear and hope
Elder Nyambura – Keeper of oral memory
Youth of Lari – Educated, restless, conflicted
The Past – A silent presence, sometimes speaking through echoes
ACT I – The Name That Bleeds
The stage is bare except for a large stone at the center. Written on it faintly: 1952. Drums beat slowly.
Chorus (soft, reverent): Lari remembers. Lari bleeds memory. Mûito wa Lari. Blood that never dried.
(Mungai enters, barefoot, carrying soil in his hands.)
Mungai: My people… Do you see this soil? It knows your names. It knows your grandfathers. It drank their blood when the world was silent. (He kneels, pours soil onto the stone.) They want you to forget. They want Lari to dissolve into Kenya. But I say no. Lari must remain Lari.
Chorus (rising): He speaks truth. He speaks pain. He speaks us.
Mungai (standing tall): I am Gítungati kía Lari. I stand between you and a world that does not understand your wounds.
(The drums stop. Silence.)
ACT II – The Altar
The stone is now surrounded by candles. People kneel. Mungai stands above them.
Mungai: Do not trust voices from outside. They do not carry your blood. They did not bury your dead.
Elder Nyambura: Memory is sacred.
Mungai: Yes. And sacred things must be protected. Even from progress.
Youth 1 (hesitant): But the world is changing…
Mungai (sharply): The world betrayed us once. It will do so again.
Chorus (conflicted): Fear sounds like wisdom. Pain sounds like truth.
(From the edge of the stage, Gichuka Waithera watches silently.)
ACT III – The Other Voice
Daylight. Candles are gone. The stone remains.
Gichuka Waithera (stepping forward): People of Lari, History is not a prison. It is a teacher.
Murmurs ripple through the Chorus.
Gichuka: The world is not waiting for us to heal forever. It is moving—to knowledge, to networks, to skill, to artificial intelligence.
Youth 2 (hopeful): AI? Innovation?
Mungai (laughing softly): Machines will not bring back the dead.
Gichuka: Neither will endless mourning. We honor the dead by building a future they were denied.
Chorus (divided): Is this betrayal… or liberation?
ACT IV – The Politics of Victimhood
Election drums. Posters of Mungai everywhere.
Mungai: They are the reason you are poor. They are the reason Lari suffers. They betrayed us.
Crowd (chanting): We are victims! We are victims!
(Gichuka steps forward.)
Gichuka: Who elected this suffering? Who chose leaders who trade wounds for power? (Silence.) Lari’s problems are not imported. They are locally manufactured. We vote them in. Then we kneel before them.
Youth 3 (quietly): We built our own chains.
(The Past whispers through the stage.)
The Past (echoing): Remember me—but do not live inside me.
ACT V – The Choice
The stone cracks slightly. Light seeps through.
Chorus: Can Lari remember Mau Mau and still move? Can wounds heal without being worshipped?
Mungai (desperate): If you leave me, you leave your ancestors!
Gichuka: No. We carry them forward.
(The Youth step toward Gichuka. Some elders hesitate, then follow.)
Chorus (slow, awakening): History behind us. Vision before us.
(Mungai stands alone beside the stone.)
Epilogue – Beyond the Stone
Chorus (final): Beware of leaders who turn memory into a throne, who rule by keeping people facing backward. For a community that kneels forever at yesterday will never stand in tomorrow.
Lights fade. The stone remains—but no longer at the center.
Curtain.
